RELS303 Ancient Religion: Egypt to Mesopotamia (Advanced)

The religious practices, beliefs and texts of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia and the Levant,
ca. 3000–300 BCE.

In this paper we explore the religious ideas and practices of three civilisations
of the ancient world: their gods and goddesses, their temples and priests, their attempts
to communicate with the divine and to exercise power via magic, as well as their foundational
myths and their expectations concerning the afterlife.

Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia,
and the Levant (Syria, Palestine/Israel, Phoenicia, the Transjordan) fascinated early
European explorers and scholars, their long-lost religious texts shedding light on
the world in which Judaism, Christianity, and Islam later evolved. While demonstrating
such influences, the paper will focus on understanding Ancient Near Eastern religion
in its own right and in relation to debates within recent scholarship.

Describe, and
appreciate the limitations of, the textual and material evidence (architectural, archaeological,
artefactual, iconographical, funerary and memorial) for religion in ancient Egypt,
Mesopotamia, and the Levant

Describe and analyse ancient Egyptian, Mesopotamian,
and Levantine myths of the origin and nature of gods and goddesses, the creation of
the universe, the creation of human beings, hero figures, and death and the afterlife

Understand
various critical methods employed by scholars to analyse ancient Egyptian, Mesopotamian,
and Levantine religion and evaluate the relative strengths and weaknesses of those
methods

Write a clear, persuasive, critical, and knowledgeable essay on a
current issue in the study of ancient Egyptian, Mesopotamian, or Levantine religion

Analyse the power structures and political interests supported by ancient Egyptian,
Mesopotamian, and Levantine myths, religious beliefs, practices, and institutions

Articulate
the strengths and weaknesses of positions in the academic disciplines related to the
study of the ancient Near East